Looting has begun in storm-ravaged New York

As emergency services are already stretched to the breaking point in storm-ravaged New York City, reports of looting are now beginning to trickle in from neighborhoods throughout the city.

A few of those accounts follow:

-Brooklyn...On Tuesday morning, NY Scanner tweeted NYPD officers were responding to "mobs who are looting storefronts in several neighborhoods," throughout the borough.

-Coney Island...Buzzfeed reports that on Tuesday, "@nycarecs —an account that posts updates from city radio communications and is part of FEMA's National Preparedness Coalition— tweeted that NYPD was 'responding to looters in Coney Island right now, going into stores. Seveal [sic] cases of this, also, many cars broken into last night.'"

-Manhattan...Around 3:45 a.m., Tuesday, a security guard at the South Street Seaport reportedly caught about a dozen looters taking items from the Brookstone store on Fulton Street. The guard, Maurice Alinton, told The Gothamist: "I shined my flashlight on them, and they scattered."

Many of the looters were already wearing the headphones they had stolen, as they waded through the frigid waters carrying high-end electronics sold in the stores.

-Queens...Between Monday and Tuesday, nine individuals were arrested for looting from stores near the heavily damaged Rockaways section.
The suspects in question were arrested at a gas station, a Radio Shack and a clothing store, according to CBS New York.

Also, on Tuesday, New York State Senator Malcolm Smith told NY1 that he was receiving multiple reports of looting in Queens.

Looters who are taking advantage of the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy are posting photographs of their stolen goods on Twitter and bragging about how they plan to carry out more thefts and violence.

Shocking images posted to the social networking website depict individuals who appear to be working together boasting about how they have stolen laptops, TV’s, and other electronics from both stores and private homes that fell victim to the hurricane.

The gangs appear to be organizing their looting expeditions under the hashtag #SandyLootCrew. Most of the accounts have thousands of previous tweets. They are not fakes.

Other Twitter users attempted to report the looters and some of their accounts were suspended. Members of the hacking group ‘Anonymous’ apparently also got embroiled in an effort to stop the looters.

As we first highlighted on Monday, the looting was planned on Twitter well in advance of the hurricane making landfall. News reports from numerous different areas are now flooding in confirming that widespread looting is taking place.

Twitter user Kyle Newman took screenshots of some of the tweets where he caught gang members organizing which houses they would loot ahead of the storm.

Not only are members of the gang bragging about their stolen loot, they are also openly planning violence.

Jackson also talked about getting a bigger boat and having already looted 20 Playstation 3′s. His original account is https://twitter.com/dutchminati – as you can see he has almost 5,000 previous tweets, confirming that the account is genuine.

He also talked about how he allowed his son to beat up old women and rob them.

Other Twitter users expressed their outrage at the looters for exploiting the victims of the hurricane.